Prelude to a Kiss Reviews

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 3/8/07 at 10:05pm

Talkin' Broadway is mixed -

"They don’t make fairy tales anymore quite like Prelude to a Kiss, the cosmic Craig Lucas heartwarmer that Roundabout is now reviving at the American Airlines, and that may be a good thing. Not, mind you, because the play isn’t a solemnly entertaining success (it is), or even because this production, as directed by Daniel Sullivan, could use a few extra sprinklings of magical dust (though that’s also the case). But it is strange how something once timely seems less timeless when the clock is no longer your immediate enemy.
...
Parisse often seems to be channeling Rita’s creator, Mary-Louise Parker, in all her quirky coldness, without tapping into the compassion and concern for others before herself that ostensibly attract Peter in the first place. The result is a Rita who’s not just unlikeable, which makes Tudyk’s job all the tougher, but isn’t so much afraid of life as afraid of everything. She does, however, excel at tapping into her inner mannishness; she’s far more convincing, in fact, as a dissolving septuagenarian than Mahoney, who carries neither the extinguishing spark of life nor the fear of death that ought to encourage him to fight for living at any cost. (His conversion into a young woman is similarly unbelievable; he recalls Parisse in no discernible ways.)
...
But Rebhorn and Bartlett emerge as both theatrical and romantic role models, finding warmth and honest humor in their interactions together and with Tudyk and Parisse that give the play heart it never quite finds elsewhere. If it’s not clear they were Peter and Rita once upon a time, they’ve learned in the intervening decades that love is a give-or-take, so you might as well give everything you can until you’re taken away."

[AC126748]

Posted: 3/8/07 at 10:13pm

You forgot the link.
http://www.talkinbroadway.com/world/PreludeKiss.html

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 3/8/07 at 10:18pm

Ah!

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 3/8/07 at 10:21pm

Variety is Mixed:

"There's an intimate and extremely delicate work bouncing about in the cavernous spaces of Daniel Sullivan's Broadway revival of "Prelude to a Kiss." Written in 1988 at the height of the AIDS crisis, Craig Lucas' romantic fairy tale hinges upon the high-concept Hollywood premise of soul transference but resounds with subtle yet piercing echoes of the ravages of illness and the looming specter of death. It takes a gossamer-light touch to achieve the play's magical balance and coax forth the sorrowful subtext beneath the eccentric fantasy. That touch is the domain here mainly of the wonderful John Mahoney, whose tender performance is the Roundabout production's chief reward.

Some plays are especially sensitive to their surroundings. Commissioned and first produced by South Coast Rep, "Prelude" transferred from Circle Rep's successful Off Broadway staging in 1990 to run a year on Broadway in the cozy Helen Hayes Theater, starring Timothy Hutton (who took over from Alec Baldwin with the move), Mary-Louise Parker and Barnard Hughes.

As has often been the case with Lucas' plays on film, the 1992 feature version muted both the work's tragicomic poetry and its depth of feeling. On the wide stage of the American Airlines Theater, unfolding on Santo Loquasto's slick but impersonal sets, the play again seems emotionally encumbered.

Even when graced with the warm caress of Donald Holder's lighting and John Gromada's dreamy, movie-ish music, the empty expanses around the three key characters often threaten to engulf them. The space issue also makes it more difficult for director Sullivan to disguise the fact that half the play is set-up."


http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117933021.html?categoryid=1265&cs=1

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 3/8/07 at 10:23pm

Isherwood for the Times gave it a near rave:

http://theater2.nytimes.com/2007/03/09/theater/reviews/09prel.html?ref=arts

"“For better or for worse,” one of those pretty phrases that glide by in the misty-eyed blur of a traditional marriage ceremony, takes on peculiar, urgent meaning in Craig Lucas’s blue-hued romantic fantasy, “Prelude to a Kiss,” which has returned to haunt Broadway in a moody, touching revival that opened last night at the American Airlines Theater.

The new Roundabout Theater Company production, directed with his customary sensitivity by Daniel Sullivan, holds fast to the melancholy of Mr. Lucas’s vision. The lonely yellow glow of windows in strangers’ apartments punctuates Santo Loquasto’s minimalist settings, lighted in nightscape hues by Donald Holder. The exceptionally fine incidental music by John Gromada strikes a wistful note. Even the Duke Ellington song of the title is heard in the heart-sore croon of Billie Holiday, as opposed to the silky purr of Ella Fitzgerald, the version used in the original production.

Mr. Tudyk and Ms. Parisse, both solid stage actors who have dabbled in movies and television (Ms. Parisse as one of those improbably gorgeous assistant district attorneys on “Law & Order”), may not have the glamour of the play’s original stars, then-on-the-rise Mary-Louise Parker and Alec Baldwin. (Timothy Hutton took over the role of Peter when the play moved to Broadway from Circle Repertory, and the perkier Meg Ryan was cast opposite Mr. Baldwin in the movie.) But they both give distinctive, appealing performances that capture the shaky excitement of youth rushing headlong into the potentially treacherous waters of commitment.

Mr. Mahoney, best known for his wry Martin Crane on “Frasier,” is an admirably unsentimental actor whose economy of means works well for him here. The scenes between Mr. Mahoney and Mr. Tudyk, in which the young lovers struggle to renew their intimacy in bizarrely altered circumstances, are wonderfully tender, sad and funny too. Mr. Mahoney has a tasty bit of physical comedy as he tries to fold himself into a chair the way a yoga-limbered young woman would, but neither actor succumbs to a temptation to play up the absurdity. (Nor did Barnard Hughes, who played the old man in the original production.)

Robin Bartlett adds some comic flavoring with a warm but tart turn as Rita’s mother, as does James Rebhorn as her cheerfully oblivious father."
Updated On: 3/8/07 at 10:23 PM

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 3/8/07 at 10:24pm

The AP is Positive:

"Craig Lucas'"Prelude to a Kiss" is a small comic fantasy with a big heart.

And by "small," we mean intimate, a tale of true love sidetracked by the oddest of circumstances. What makes the play, originally seen off and then on Broadway in 1990, still glow in the current Roundabout Theatre Company revival is an exceptional cast and the meticulous direction of Daniel Sullivan. He mines not only the work's laughter but its tears.

"Prelude," which opened Thursday at Broadway's American Airlines Theatre, finds the right balance between the two. Lucas, who wrote the book for the lushly romantic "Light in the Piazza," is dealing with another aspect of romance here: reality after the first exhilaration.

________________________________________________________________

In the end, what makes "Prelude to a Kiss" reverberate so strongly is its joyous embrace of life, from its very beginning to the end. Sermonizing has never seemed so sweet and unassuming.

For example, there is an amazingly moving speech near the end of the play as Mahoney assesses all the things that go into making up a person's life. It's not a grand statement, but rather a mundane catalog of all the ups, downs and in-betweens.

"As a final reward for all this ... you disappear. No one knows where. So we might as well have a good time while we're here, don't you think?" he concludes. Not a bad philosophy. Totally touching and right on the mark. Sort of like "Prelude to a Kiss" itself."


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/03/08/entertainment/e144501S22.DTL

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 3/8/07 at 10:28pm

I think their mention of the play as an AIDS parable is interesting. I know that's how it's been interpreted through the years, but didn't Lucas come out recently and say that it's not?

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 3/8/07 at 10:28pm

Newsday is Positive:

"Prelude to a Kiss," a little tragicomedy about nothing less than the mystery of life, still has the power to disturb and enchant.

Seventeen years after a couple of gorgeous youngsters named Mary-Louise Parker and Alec Baldwin opened downtown in this loopy and melancholy romance by Craig Lucas, it remains a disarmingly wise fable about the dark magic and cruelty of the body-snatching life cycle.

One can certainly argue whether the world needs this modest revival, which the Roundabout opened last night with John Mahoney - aka Frasier's dad - delicately adjusting the love story to include more about the character known as the Old Man.

For anyone who missed the original Broadway run, the 1992 movie with Meg Ryan and Baldwin, or later stagings around the country, there may still be surprise in the hairpin turns and supernatural twists that Lucas plots with such unpretentious appeal. Even without the original star power and suspense, this modern fairy tale has a few secrets left to share about beauty, rot and the soul-deep implications of "for better or for worse."

The intimate piece feels a bit dwarfed in the large theater. But director Daniel Sullivan, an expert in emotional understatement, resists the temptation to push his actors into a broader style than the play demands. And Mahoney - a Steppenwolf Theatre veteran before TV found him - turns an old guy's fragility into theatrical power."

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/stage/ny-etkiss5121898mar09,0,3305745.story?coll=ny-theater-headlines

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 3/8/07 at 11:29pm

WHAT?????????????

How are the reviews this good?

[folkyboy]

Posted: 3/8/07 at 11:36pm

i felt the same way about Heartbreak House when all the reviewers loved it

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 3/8/07 at 11:38pm

Same here.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 3/8/07 at 11:57pm

AM NY gives it Three-and-a-half Stars:

""Prelude to a Kiss," named for the Duke Ellington song of the same title, is a total anomaly in contemporary American drama. And in Dan Sullivan's Broadway revival, it is also a total delight.

Forsaking realism for elements of the supernatural is not unusual. But Craig Lucas, who also wrote "Reckless" and "The Light in the Piazza," has married together fairy tale fantasy with dark undertones of death and loneliness with light romantic comedy.
______________________________________________________________

John Mahoney, who played Frasier's dad on television, is less physically imposing than Ned Beatty was in the film version as the Old Man. Still, before his transformation, Mahoney makes us understand the character's loneliness, helping us to understand his desire to escape into a new body. Likewise, his scenes with Alan Tudyk, while holding the soul of his wife, are nothing short of beautiful."
http://www.amny.com/entertainment/am-prelude0308,0,6069598.story?coll=am-ent-headlines

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 3/9/07 at 12:03am

Theatremania is Mixed:

"Pleasant isn't an adjective that applies to much of today's theater -- nor is it an adjective most theater companies seem to strive for. But pleasantness seems to be the goal -- for better and for worse -- of the Roundabout Theatre's revival of Craig Lucas' offbeat 1990 romantic comedy Prelude to a Kiss.

While most of the Roundabout's middlebrow audience will likely leave the American Airlines Theater with a smile on their faces, some members will likely be aware that Daniel Sullivan's direction has smoothed out some of the play's sharper and rougher edges, especially in the meant-to-be-darker second act. And those who saw Mary-Louise Parker as Rita in the original Off-Broadway and Broadway productions (which doesn't, alas, include me) may well miss her particular brand of quirkiness.
________________________________________________________________

Fortunately, Mahoney, returning to the New York stage for the first time in 15 years, manages to bring some of the needed gravitas to the production, as well as being the one performer who truly touches the heart. He seems a little too vital for the role, however, even in the earliest scenes when he's supposed to be quite frail.
_______________________________________________________________

Some have suggested that the switched-body development is a metaphor for gay couples where one member had AIDS and aged rapidly. Perhaps that's true, but Lucas' primary message is that we should all enjoy the lives we have for as long as we have them. In that vein, there are worse -- and better -- ways to spend two hours than watching this enjoyable if imperfect Prelude to a Kiss."


http://www.theatermania.com/content/news.cfm/story/10224

Updated On: 3/9/07 at 12:03 AM

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 3/9/07 at 12:17am

I.....don't understand.

I hated it. My friends hated it. My boyfriend hated it. The buzz around the office (YES, ROUNDABOUT!!!) is that it sucks.

WTF?!

[Calvin]

Posted: 3/9/07 at 12:48am

Interesting. I've heard positive things from several people whose opinions I respect, but I'll see for myself next Wednesday.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 3/9/07 at 6:35am

I liked it.

[Testing1232]

Posted: 3/9/07 at 8:56am

<< WHAT?????????????

How are the reviews this good?

>>

Totally agree !! While, I didnt HATE it, I thought, for the most part it was a bore--- I just cant believe that Barnes loves Parisse !! She was horrible !!!

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[moonys_autumn]

Posted: 3/9/07 at 9:22am

"WHAT?????????????

How are the reviews this good?"

Maybe because your personal opinion does not define good theatre? Just a thought.

I loved this show, I can't wait to see it again. I'm thrilled it's getting such great reviews. :) Guess I just don't know theatre. Oh well.

[LaCageAuxFollesFan2]

Posted: 3/9/07 at 9:37am

Wow...I really dont get these reviews. And the Times is NOT a Rave, just positive at best. But still, the production really is NOT that good. I dont get this.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 3/9/07 at 11:55am

It's not even so much that the production is flat out bad - it's not - it's just pointless.

[teka21]

Posted: 3/9/07 at 10:50pm

I really liked this play.
I found it earnest, well written and still relevant. Perhaps because I was in the front row on opening night, it was deeply intimate and compelling. I found the love and longing between Parisse and Tudyk quite believable, and Mahoney was simply terrific- as Rita, he moved me to tears. Rita's parents were perfect. There's much to appreciate in this Prelude.